It's always great to be the best at something, isn't it? Florida recently got spanked for coming last in spending federal stimulus dollars on transportation and infrastructure. In other words, we were number one in not spending federal ARRA dollars.More...
Members of the STAR Coalition are not the only ones worried about the quality of the data that will be made public next month when ARRA recipient reporting commences. A report issued last week by the Government Accountability Office also expresses significant concerns. The GAO writes on page 111:More...
Since Labor Day there has been a spate of new reports and other materials on Recovery Act issues. Here's a round-up of these new items, which are being added to our resources pages.More...
The $787 billion Recovery Act is designed to boost the entire economy, but a new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities shows that the stimulus is serving as a boon for low-income Americans.More...
Thanks to the federal stimulus bill, a new tax-exempt bond has hit the market: "Recovery Zone Facility Bonds" (RZFBs). And while that phrase might make your eyes glaze over, keep reading, because initial indicators of how these bonds might be allocated in New York City are cause for heightened alert.More...
Good Jobs First just released its report evaluating state Recovery Act websites. Here is the press release:
Washington, DC, July 29, 2009--While some states have created impressive websites to disseminate information about their share of the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), most are failing to make effective use of online technology to educate taxpayers about the impact of economic stimulus spending. This is the finding of Show Us the Stimulus, a report released today by Good Jobs First, a non-profit research center based in Washington, DC.More...
Economic Recovery contracts will now go on line in Massachusetts. This is a significant raising of the bar for transparency. Up until now the spending but not the contracts had not been posted, particularly not if spent by sub-entities like municipalities, counties, and other authorities.More...
The New York Times this morning added to the growing literature on how states are choosing to spend transportation stimulus dollars with the article by Michael Cooper and Griff Palmer entitled "Cities Lose Out on Road Funds from Federal Stimulus."More...
